Wednesday, August 3, 2016

New UN Report:Tax Meat Until It’s Too Expensive To Eat

They are positively mad.

Meat should be taxed at the wholesale level to raise the price and deter consumption, says a new report from the UN’s International Research Panel.

“I think it is extremely urgent,” said Professor Maarten Hajer of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, lead author of the report. “All of the harmful effects on the environment and on health needs to be priced into food products.”

Hajer and other members of the IRP assert that livestock creates 14.5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Rather than taxing the meat at the retail level (in supermarkets and shops), Hajer recommended taxing it at the wholesale level. “We think it’s better to price meats earlier in the chain, it’s easier,” said Hajer.

“The evidence is accumulating that meat, particularly red meat, is just a disaster for the environment,” agrees Rachel Premack, a columnist for The Washington Post’s Wonkblog.

“Meanwhile, Denmark is considering a recommendation from its ethics council that all red meats should be taxed,” Premack continues. “The council argued in May that Danes were “ethically obliged” to reduce their consumption to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”

I visited Norway last summer and the fish farming operations in the fjords are a model of efficient food production. There are environmental groups there that oppose this type of fish farming as well though because of claims that they are driving the wild fish to extinction.

The USA would never go for this anyway. Can anyone imagine the effects on our economy if we essentially destroyed the beef industry? Not only would that break farmers who raise the cattle, but those who raise the corn and soybeans that are typically grown to feed them. Their "evidence" that cow farts are destroying the ozone is utter nonsense anyway. Rotationally grazed cattle are actually very good for the land.